steps

Trace the roll of painter's tape onto the bottom of the dried gourd with a pencil. Cut out this circle with a jigsaw; discard. Remove all seeds and loose matter from inside the gourd.

On your home computer, find a font you prefer and print numbers in that font, on regular paper, at about 5 inches tall. (Fonts that have varying line widths within the characters look most interesting in this project.)

Roughly cut out the numbers from the paper. Cut pieces of carbon paper slightly larger than each printed number. Place and tape the numbers on the gourd, with pieces of carbon paper between. Trace over the outline of each number, transferring to gourd. Remove tape, numbers and carbon paper.

Beginning with the 3/8-inch drill bit, drill a few holes within the outlines of the numbers. Fill in the outlines with more holes from the 1/4-inch drill bit. Finally, switch to the 1/8-inch drill bit to make holes in any remaining space. Always drill perpendicular to the curve of the gourd, and be careful not to place the holes too close together, as the gourd may split or crumble.

Erase the carbon paper lines with a regular pencil eraser. Place a CFL bulb in a bulb fixture and set underneath the gourd to light from within. Note: Incandescent bulbs may get hot enough to ignite a dry gourd; use CFL bulbs to safely light the luminary.